


The Mark of Our Souls (Upon My Skin)

by The_Risen_Phoenix



Category: Final Fantasy Type-0
Genre: Happy Ending, M/M, Soulmates, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29580651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Risen_Phoenix/pseuds/The_Risen_Phoenix
Summary: Born without a soul-mark, Kurasame had given up on finding a soul-mate.
Relationships: Ace/Kurasame Susaya





	The Mark of Our Souls (Upon My Skin)

They say that soul-mates share the same mark imprinted like a tattoo upon their skin. Some liked to think that the bigger the mark, the deeper the connection, while others said that that had nothing to do with it at all. The marks could be brightly coloured, or simple outlines of things that would have meaning to both parties; though if one or the other were to die, the remaining person's mark would disappear as though it had never been and the memory of said person would fade from their memory.

Some people wondered on how soul-mates worked; like could a person have more than one person who could be their soul-mate? Or did they miss out on that connection if death parted them before they even met? How was it decided that this person should be your soul-mate, how could it be that this person you had never met be the other half to your whole?

Was it true that there was another person that had the same mark inked across their skin, and if you managed to find them, how did it work that that person was meant to be your other half? Were there those who's mark had no pair? Or those who shared their mark with more than one other person. Did that mean that they were all fated to be together? That the one with a singular mark was meant to live and die alone? No one knew the answers to these questions, and to stop others thinking too deeply upon the utter absurdity of the phenomenon, those in power passed the marks off as something sacred and romantic. The public's fears faded, as the notion that finding the person with your matching mark was the height of romance and fortune.

It was not uncommon for a child to be born with a soul-mark already inked upon the newborns' flesh, as it just meant that their soul-mate had already been born. Neither then was uncommon to wait a year or even two for your mark to appear; letting all who looked know that their soul-mate had been born into this world. From one to five years was usually the average age a delayed mark would appear, but there were always those who feel outside the norm.

When Kurasame had been born without a soul-mark, no one had been particularly surprised or dismayed by the lack of mark. His parents had kept an eye out upon his body for his mark to appear, but as year after year passed, they began to lose hope. By the time he had turned seven, Kurasame himself had resigned himself to the fact that he just hadn't been given a soul-mate He never considered the fact that his soul-mate might already have died before he was born; though his parents had, and they mourned the loss of such a connection for their son. As such, after his seventh year, both Kurasame and his parents stopped looking for the arrival of his soul-mark If only they had kept looking, for the next year, his mark would appear at the base of his neck, hidden beneath his clothing and unnoticed for years to come.

He was nearing sixteen years old when he his room mate asked him about the mark, a frantic scramble to find a hand mirror ensuing after the words had finally registered in Kurasame's mind. Holding the mirror up for the other boy, Guren helped Kurasame see his mark for the first time; watching as the younger boy ran reverent fingers over the marked skin.

A soul-mate. Finally.

Kurasame liked to pretend that he had given up on the idea of ever having one, but deep down in his heart, he had always longed for that one special person that fate had decreed was his perfect match. And now, he had the mark to prove that there was someone out there that was made to fit perfectly with him. But when had the mark appeared? He had stopped looking after his seventh birthday, and he was sixteen now; so it could have happened anytime in the last nine years. His soul-mate could be anywhere from nine years old, to just newborn for all he knew. That would definitely make it a lot harder to track the other person down.

And what if they didn't want to be with someone so much older than them? The largest age gap recorded was over twenty five years; and Kurasame had heard that the union had not been a happy one. The older of the pair had assumed that they were unmarked – a very rare occurrence, though more likely their soul-mate had died before they were born – and had fallen in love with another and married them. They were expecting their first child together, when one day they had woken to find a bright soul-mark emblazoned across their pectoral, causing confusion and heartbreak for all involved.

They had not wished to leave their partner, and so the spectre of a soul-mate had drifted around the edges of their life. The other party had eventually grown tired of the strain on their relationship, and had taken their child and left. Years later the soul-mates had met, and although the younger had been ecstatic to meet them, the elder had blamed them for the destruction of their marriage and loss of their child. In the end, they had stayed by one another's side, but were never together. The younger could not bear to part from the one they were made to be with, and the elder too tired to resist the pull to be by their side. Happiness was not theirs to be found, and eventually the strain became too great and the younger took their own life in a flurry of hopeless despair; the knowledge that their fated one had never once wanted them, destroying them. Once the mark faded upon their soul-mate’s death, the elder party had quickly fallen to despair and ruin, having never realised just how much they needed the other in their life.

But they weren't that much different in age though were they? And Kurasame had not started a relationship with anyone else....so perhaps it would all work out in the end. Fate was a funny thing sometimes, but it usually seemed to create a way for soul-mates to meet – assuming both were still alive. So that meant all Kurasame had to do was wait, and be patient. He could do that; after all, he had waited for sixteen years already after all. He would somehow manage to convince his soul-mate that they were meant to be together; their pairing would not end in tragedy he vowed.

He had forgotten though, just how hard waiting could be. The first seven years of his life he had waited with baited breath from the appearance of his mark, though several of those years he had been too young to understand the meaning of the marks. And then the next nine years he had given up even thinking about having a soul-mate. But now, he had his mark – had a soul-mate out there waiting for him – and he had to wait patiently for them to find him, or for him to find them, and it was torture.

He wanted to ask each new person he met if they shared the same mark as he did, only common sense stopping him from acting upon his urge. He studied any new acquaintances, trying to see if they clicked together in a telling way, or if there was something about them that might symbolise one of the aspects of his soul-mark. But years passed, and still he did not meet his fated one.

As year after year passed, and still no sight of his soul-mate, Kurasame's hope began to wane and he started losing hope once more. War had come to Orience, and the chances of him dying each time he was sent out to the front lines, was great; and just the thought of dying before he ever even had the chance to meet the other half of his soul was enough to fill him with despair.

His friends tried to tell him not to lose hope, and to keep on searching; but it was hard not to feel discouraged as he watched them happily interact with their own soul-mates.

The war was long and Kurasame had had more than a few close brushes with death, but he survived. He couldn't say the same for two of his friends, and he watched as their fated ones lost the will to live; watched as they wasted away, until finally they fell gratefully into death's warm embrace – finally able to be reunited in the afterlife.

And yet still, his soul-mate had not appeared before him.

He was a twenty five year old man, and he had still yet to meet his soul-mate.

He considered travelling the world to search, but his last remaining friend begged him to join them as a teacher for military tactics at a nearby academy. He could scarce even consider leaving his friend after they had pleaded with him, and so he had shelved the last of his hope, and joined them as an instructor.

It was in his second year that he encountered the infamous 'Class Zero'. A group of extremely talented young men and women, that excelled in all areas of military prowess, and some shmuck had decided to put them all under his command. Glorious. Kurasame just hoped that they weren't all egotistical idiots, musing darkly to himself that a few of them probably had an even greater understanding of tactics than he himself did. And he'd fought in an actual war.

Sighing heavily, and noting that he had delayed so long that he was now slightly late to meet his new class, Kurasame gathered up his papers and headed towards his classroom. Pausing just outside the door, he could hear them chatter amongst themselves – though he grimaced slightly at the sound of a few overly loud, obnoxious voices amongst them.

Striding into the room confidently – don't let them see your fear or they will eat you alive – Kurasame introduced himself, and that was about the time that all hell broke loose.

An angry blonde flew at him with a clenched fist; Kurasame easily shifting to the side to avoid the blow, negligently tossing him towards the wall, before another student joined the fray. Ice exploded as he threw the spell down to keep the rest of the from joining, but there was one last person still within range. Withdrawing his sword from it's sheath, Kurasame swung around to rest the sharp edge against the soft flesh beneath the boys' chin. Clear blue eyes stared in shock, his weaponized card falling from limp fingers, gaze fixed upon the unique blade that Kurasame wielded.

As he gazed down upon the young man, Kurasame a lightness in his soul, like he had finally found the other half of himself. But that couldn't possibly be true, could it? Further proof that the feeling welling up within his chest was more than just his imagination, were the cards that the other held in his hand; an exact match to the cards fanned out in display before the upright sword in his mark. No, it was just a coincidence. Fate would not mock him as to make him the instructor for his soul-mate would it?

The pair stared silently at one another, words out of their reach, for what could have been merely minutes or even hours. The same confusion that he felt was reflected back at him in those clear blue eyes, as though they too were trying to puzzle out what they were feeling.

Their stare was finally broken when one of the others in the class exclaimed loudly.

“Hey Ace! Doesn't that blade look like the same as the mark on your back?”

“Oh yeah it totally does! Can't mistake such a unique sword like that for anything else.” One overly excitable female exclaimed, bouncing in place.

Kurasame watched as Ace backed away from him warily, the card disappearing from his hand as he reached hesitantly over his shoulder to touch his mark; Kurasame not even realising that he had mirrored the actions, his own hand reaching towards his neck. He could see how conflicted the boy was as the information processed, but before Kurasame could say anything, could do anything, Ace turned on his heel and fled, his classmates and Kurasame a like calling out to him.

A quick question shot at his siblings as to the most likely place Ace might run to later, and Kurasame found himself racing through the halls after his soul-mate. He checked the Crystarium first, startling the students with his sudden appearance before turning exiting just as swiftly when there was no sign of the panicked boy he was searching for. The chocobo ranch was his next stop, but none of the handlers recalled seeing Ace recently. On further thought, Kurasame realised that Ace probably wished for privacy, so any shared spaces was likely out of the question.

Instead he took the portal to the dorms, his heart pounding nervously in his chest as he stood before Ace's door. Class 0 had their own separate dorms to the rest of the students, their late inclusion within the academy meaning that there had been no space in the usual dorms for them. This meant that with the rest of Class 0 still waiting in their class room for both his and Ace's return, Kurasame and Ace were the only two in the area.

Hesitantly, Kurasame raised his hand and knocked on the door, a reluctant smile tugging at his hidden lips at the squeak of surprise from the other side. Muffled footsteps approached the door before it swung open, Kurasame having to jam his foot inside before Ace could slam it closed in his shock. Obviously he had not been expecting Kurasame to come after him.

“Please wait,” Kurasame pleaded, trying to make eye contact with Ace. “I just want to talk....please, I've been waiting years to meet you....”

Ace stopped pushing against the door, eyes flickering up briefly to meet Kurasame's icy blue before he reluctantly stepped away from the door and allowed him entry.

At some point while he had been hiding, Ace had shucked his jacket and mantle leaving him in his white undershirt, allowing Kurasame to see the faint outline of his soul-mark.

It was, frankly speaking, enormous, taking up almost the entirety of his back, the hilt of the sword resting at the base of his neck with the blade following the line of his spine to end just after it dipped into his pants. Four tarot cards fanned out below the decorated hilt of the sword, two on either side of the bluish blade.

One hand reached up almost unconsciously to touch his own matching mark, the other hovering between them with the desire to run his fingers over the proof that they were bound together. It was only Ace turning back around that stopped his fingers from making contact, the boy eyeing his hovering hand suspiciously.

“Forgive me,” Kurasame murmured, withdrawing his hand and retreating to press his back against the wall by the door.

“It's ok, I think.” Ace replied, hovering in the middle of the room. “Are you...I mean can I?....Can I see your mark?”

“Yes.” Kurasame breathed out in response, heart thudding painfully fast in his chest.

Ace was not denying their connection! He seemed almost shy or nervous? Kurasame wasn't sure what his soul-mate was feeling, but he knew that he wouldn't let him go without a fight. Not after waiting so many years to receive his mark, then another eighteen to meet the one who was meant to be his.

Kurasame pulled away from the wall, turning his back towards Ace and removing his jacket and tugging down the high collar of his shirt. He could hear Ace approaching him slowly, breath hitching as he confirmed that their marks matched, a small sound of surprise escaping him when Ace reached out to trace the lines of his cards.

“We match.” Ace's voice trembled, Kurasame abandoning his hold on his clothing to turn around and meet blue eyes, so lost that he couldn't stop himself from gathering Ace into his arms.

Instead of stiffening and pulling away from him like Kurasame had half expected, Ace melted into his touch, a shock of something passing between them where they made contact.

“I've waited my entire life to meet you, knowing that the likelihood of us meeting was so slim that it was practically non existent. And even now after meeting you, I don't know how to feel.”

“The world is teetering on the brink of war,” Kurasame agreed quietly. “And there are no guarantees that any of us will make it out of this alive at the end of the day. But....I can't regret meeting you now.”

Kurasame sighed softly, running his gloved hand through Ace's hair gently. “I was devastated when I didn't receive a soul-mark when I was a child and I'd practically given up on getting one. It wasn't until I was much older that I discovered I had one, and then there was the fear that you would not want to be with someone like me; someone who is much older than you were.”

“I never realised just how much I'd feel drawn to you,” Ace admitted. “I've had this mark spread across my back from the moment of my birth, and yet I tried to deny that it meant there was someone out there that would complete myself. I always thought that I was complete on my own, that I was fine by myself. But now that I've met you, I can feel just how empty I was; how much I kept denying the yearning in my chest to find that other half of my soul.”

Silence fell between them then, Kurasame continuing to stroke Ace's hair. They stood this way for a few moments longer, neither knowing how to break the silence. From outside the door, they could hear the creeping footsteps of who they assumed to be the rest of Class 0, hushed whispers and hissed rebukes to remain silent, causing both to stifle their laughter.

Releasing his hold on his soulmate, Kurasame headed for the door, yanking it open and directing his stern glare towards the eleven other teenagers crouched before the door. Cinque and Jack stumbled back and landed upon their rear ends with shouts of alarm, while the rest just wore sheepish looks.

“Class dismissed.” Kurasame drawled sarcastically, making shooing motions towards them when they still remained in place. “We will reconvene tomorrow at 0800 in the classroom, but until then....shoo.”

Ace giggled from where he peeked from around Kurasame's larger form, watching as they scrambled away hastily. Seven shot him a reassuring look before she disappeared, knowing just how Ace had felt about his soul-mark previously. Nine shot him a thumbs up and a wink, making Ace blush furiously even as Nine burst into laughter. The door closed softly upon their departure, leaving Ace and Kurasame alone once more.

“So....” Kurasame hesitated, his heart starting to thud painfully quickly in his chest; fear and hope warring and making his chest feel tight. “Where does that leave us?”

“I....I don't......” Kurasame held his breath, already preparing himself for the worst. The conflicted look upon Ace's face giving him little to no hope that he would accept him.

Ace looked up at Kurasame's face, seeing his hope disappear, as he tried to sort out his feelings. Could he really give up this feeling of completeness? Could he crush the hopes and dreams of the man that was made to hold the other half of his very soul? The one that had waited so long just to find him?

No...no he couldn't. Ace knew the risks of accepting Kurasme, knew that either one of them could die while out on assignment. But he couldn't let him go. He might have met this man only an hour ago, but already he could not imagine his life without him. Oh he would survive, he would continue living; but gods would it hurt. He didn't want to make them both go through that pain, not when they could be together instead.

“I don't want to lose you. I'm scared to be with you, but I'm scared to not explore our bond too. I want to be with you Kurasame, no matter what the future might bring.”

Ace reached up towards Kurasame's face, tugging gently at the sides of his mask and loosening the ties. He pulled the mask away slowly, seeing the way Kurasame's eyes shifted away from his the moment before his face was exposed. Beneath the leather and metal covering, Kurasame's face was scarred; perhaps burnt by magic fire, left too long unattended before healing was applied.

“It's disgusting I know, I'm...I'm sorry....” Kurasame pulled away slightly, halting at the tug on his coat.

“It is part of you, and no part of my soul-mate could be disgusting to me.” Ace whispered, fingers ghosting over the scarring. “You're my soul-mate aren't you? Are you going to tell me know that you don't want to be with me? After you waited for so long, and fought so hard for this?”

Kurasame buried his face into the crook of Ace's neck, breathing unsteady as emotions shook him. Ace was right. They were soul-mates, and he wanted this – wanted Ace. Was he really going to let this stop him being together? Did he really think his soul-mate would be so shallow? He huffed out a short laugh at his stupidity.

“I want this. I want you. I want to see where this goes.” Ace threaded his fingers through Kurasame's blue locks, tugging them gently so that their eyes could meet. “Will you walk this path with me?”

“I would like nothing more in this world Ace.” Kurasame sealed his words with a chaste kiss upon Ace's cheek, smiling softly at the flush that tinted his cheeks.

They would face the future together, growing closer and stronger as both friends, lovers and soul-mates.

**Author's Note:**

> This has been open on my laptop for months....and I've very slowly been working on it when I can find the motivation.  
> The end might be a bit rushed, but I just really wanted it done and out of the way.
> 
> No beta, so if let me know if there are any mistakes.


End file.
